Yum Yum

You know what I love most about Chip being out of college for the summer? The wonderful food he makes for us!

Sunday was cold seafood salad over lettuce leaves from our garden, cheddar/Old Bay biscuits, and banana cream pie milkshakes. YUMMM!

Oh Rosemary!

Ahhh, Summer... Evenings spent on the patio, watching the boys play backyard baseball, swatting the gnats, and smelling the neighbor's barbecue. What better time to enjoy a unique iced beverage.

The beverage of this summer is the Rosemary Citrus Spritzer, made with rosemary from my herb garden. Here is a picture taken on my deck railing and the recipe follows. Happy Summer!



Rosemary Citrus Spritzer
Makes 10-12 drinks

2 lemons
2 oranges
4 (4-inch) sprigs fresh rosemary
3/4 cups sugar
1/4 cup honey
Ice
Soda water
Rosemary and lemon for garnish (optional)

Peel off thick strips of zest from 1 lemon.

Juice the lemons and oranges into a liquid measuring cup – you should have about 1 cup of juice. Top off with water if necessary to make 1 cup.

Combine zest, juice, rosemary, sugar, and honey in a saucepan over medium heat. Boil for 1 minute, stirring constantly to dissolve the sugars.

Remove from heat and let sit 10 minutes. Strain, discard solids, and let syrup cool completely.

To serve, fill an 8-ounce glass halfway with ice cubes, add 2-3 tablespoons syrup, fill with soda water, and stir. Garnish with rosemary sprigs and/or lemon slices, if desired.

Variations:
• Use 1 cup lemon juice and omit oranges.
• Use 1 cup sugar and omit honey.
• Add a splash of gin or vodka to the glass.

Score One for MickeyD's

I found this on YouTube and just had to share. I don't believe it is ASL, but it is something very similar. I just like the easy flow of the commercial and the thought of universal communication, even if it is about fast food!

For Azaera

Azaera asked me for two things last week, and I am honored to oblige :)

First, I had mentioned in my Thankful Thursday post that I loved dinners that could be prepared in under 30 minutes. Azaera asked me to share some recipes. Well, here's the first - super simple and quick meatloaf muffins:

You will need 1 box of Stove Top Stuffing Mix - any flavor will do, 2 eggs, 1 cup of water, and 2 pounds of ground beef or turkey. Just mix all the ingredients together and fill 12 muffin tins with the mixture. Make sure to coat the muffin tins with cooking spray first, especially if you are using turkey. Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 30 minutes.

With the muffins, I serve boiled new potatoes - no need to peel them - just chop, boil, drain and season however you like. Our favorite is salt, pepper and some chopped fresh chives from our herb garden. For something green, I steam brocolli in the microwave - that way it keeps more of its good vitamins. And then if your family is like mine and always wants bread of some sort with dinner, I serve leftover biscuits or store bought rolls.

Azaera, I'll post more in the near future!

Azaera's second request was for some more pictures of Ashley. Ok, well just twist my arm!! Here are some that were taken over the summer:

Balanced?

What a weekend! There were several good things that happened, and several not-so-good things. Let’s see how the weekend balanced out…

NOT-SO-GOOD

Friday afternoon, one of the circuits in my home’s circuit panel went on the fritz. Every outlet on my kitchen walls, including the one into which the refrigerator is plugged, ran out of E-juice. My home warranty company said it wasn’t an emergency, and therefore it would be 24-48 hours (starting this morning) before an electrician could visit. They did inform me that I was welcome to call my own electrician and pay the weekend rates if I wanted.

GOOD

Amy agreed to store my fridge contents in her refrigerator, especially important because I have medicine that must stay cold.

Saturday morning, I went to the hardware store and bought a heavy duty extension cord – and before you ask, yes, we did have one – one that my son told me on Friday no longer worked – who knew a weedeater would cut straight through an extension cord. I plugged my refrigerator into the new cord, ran it out my kitchen window and plugged it into my outdoor socket. My house is so old that I don’t have three prong outlets except in my kitchen and outside.

The food was returned from Amy’s fridge and life was once again good.

NOT-SO-GOOD

Ashley visited the doctor’s office Friday afternoon and Sunday morning.

GOOD

Friday’s visit was to discuss possible treatment for reflux, not an uncommon thing for children with G-tubes. The pediatrician prescribed Zantac and told us to go visit the gastroenterologist. The Zantac seems to be helping.

Sunday’s visit was because Ashley’s cold/allergies which had been plaguing her for a couple of weeks took a turn for the worse. She didn’t sleep much at all Saturday night because of coughing, and when she woke up Sunday morning, she had a fever of 101. Fevers trigger her seizures and by 7am, she had already had two.

Antibiotics were prescribed and by this morning, Ashley seemed to be feeling a tad bit better, and she has had no more seizures.

NOT-SO-GOOD
We picked Corey up from the two week camp he had been attending, and had to leave the windows open in the van on the trip home due to the camp ‘aroma’.

GOOD

All his dirty clothes and bedding were washed by early afternoon and put away.

THE BEST

Sunday, I made three apple pies (with my state fair award winning recipe) – two for a party at work, and one for us at home. Yummy!!

Okay - the GOODs win out this weekend!

Thankful Thursday

Today, I am thankful...

• For email. Communicating with school administrators via email rather than face to face keeps my blood pressure from getting too high!


• For summer evenings when I can stand out next to my vegetable garden, watering it with the hose. It's quite relaxing.


• For the birds who like to play in the spray of the hose while I water the garden


• For the ice cold strawberry wine cooler I enjoyed with my dinner last night.


• For friends like Lynnette and Amy who will listen to me complain after a particularly difficult day at work.


• For homemade pineapple salsa. The recipe is below and it is great on grilled chicken or shrimp.


• That both my boys hold doors for women and let them walk through the door first.


• That Post-It notes now come in a rainbow of colors. For an admitted Post-It addict, it helps brighten my world.


• That when walking my dog Tuesday evening, we found a baby rabbit that had lost its way home. Lizzie, my dog, kept nudging it with her nose until it once again saw Rabbit Mommy and then we watched it scurry happily home.


• For Banana Slurpees - as tasty as a banana popsicle, but slushier

Pineapple Salsa

1 cup finely chopped fresh pineapple
1/3 cup finely chopped red onion
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh cilantro
1/4 cup pineapple preserves
1 tablespoon finely chopped seeded jalapeño pepper
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

(This is just as good without the jalapeño...)

Sooner Rather Than Later

Last evening, my oldest son and I planted our vegetable plants and herbs in our garden. We’ve had so much rain recently and more is planned, so getting the plants in the soil was a snap, and hopefully they will grow and flourish with the upcoming rains. We put in tomatoes, pepper, cucumbers, squash and several different herb plants. As we finished up with the tomato plants, I pushed their big wire cages into place around them, and it was at that moment that one of our neighbors gave me a very strange look – almost a “Those tomato plants are only 2 inches high and you are putting that very large support around them” question. I know it does look a little strange around the baby plants now, but the wire supports will help the plants as they get larger and laden with luscious red tomatoes. And that made me think of my children with disabilities.

Just as I put the tomato supports in place when my plants are tiny, I worked very hard to put supports in place for my children when they were tiny. I encountered many strange looks and battles from people who thought it silly of me to want literacy instruction, for example, when my blind daughter was only 2 years old, or physical therapy for my oldest daughter who had been unable to walk since birth. Many of the professionals I encountered seemed to think a waiting attitude was more appropriate than an action attitude. But I strongly disagreed.

So, when my children and I are eating our juicy, tasty red tomatoes – when we are having conversations around the dinner table – when we are planning our walking trip to Williamsburg, I will remember those people who doubted – those people who believed I was asking for too much too soon. They were wrong – and they are still wrong if they think I will not strongly advocate for my children…and my tomatoes!

The Dark Lord of Cooking

Hell has opened its gates and spewed forth yet another season with the inimitable Gordon, ‘You, donkey!’, Ramsay. Yes, my friends, Hell’s Kitchen is back on TV for another season, and I am thrilled. I’m not sure what it says about me that I am fascinated by such a rude, insensitive person who has almost every other word bleeped off TV, but I really do like Chef Ramsay.

I wrote about Gordon last summer, and yes, I am pretending that he told me I could call him Gordon. Nothing has changed – I would still love to be on the show even if it meant he would yell at me. At least I would know that by the end of the season, I would be able to cook a kick-ass risotto.

One of the first things the contestants have to do is cook their signature dish for His Chefness. My oldest son asked me during the show this week what my signature dish would be. So, I’ve been thinking about it and have come up with the recipe below. Thing is, I don’t know what to call it. So, we will have a contest. The person who comes up with the best name for my signature dish wins the secret recipe for my apple pie that won first place at our State Fair many years ago - really.


?????????

Ingredients
• 4 slices peppered bacon, cut in 1 inch pieces
• 12 oz. trimmed fresh young green beans
• 1Tbsp. soy sauce
• 4 pork chops. ½ inch thick
• 1/3 cup apple butter
• ¼ cup water
• 1 cup red or yellow cherry or grape tomatoes

Preparation
• In a 12-inch skillet, cook bacon over medium high heat until crisp; remove. Reserve 1 tablespoon drippings in skillet. Drain bacon on paper towels.
• Meanwhile, in a 2-quart microwave-safe dish, cook beans in 2 tablespoons water, covered, on high for 4 minutes. Stir once. Drain, set aside.
• Brush chops with soy sauce. In skillet, brown chops on both sides. Add apple butter and the ¼ cup water; reduce heat. Simmer, covered for 5 minutes.
• Add beans, tomatoes and bacon; cook uncovered 3-5 minutes, until sauce thickens.

Serves 4.

Thankful Thursday...On Friday

Well, Thursday didn't turn out quite as I had planned. I have had a really bad cold for a couple of weeks, and yesterday decided to go to the doctor. Instead of just having a bad cold, I have a sinus infection, and am feeling like something my cat killed and left on the porch :( But, I do want to post my Thankful Thursday list as usual. I find it helps me keep the rest of my week in perspective.

This week, I am thankful...

• for the new mulch that my two sons did such a great job spreading in all my flower beds and gardens. Now I am anxious to plant flowers!


• that my darling Ashley, the child that doctors said would never live to see her first birthday, turns 13 years old this week


• for yellow Converse tennis shoes with white polka dots - Ashley's birthday present!


• for warm spring breezes and gentle rains, perfect for a walk around the neighborhood


• for tiny little puppies who find homes with good families


• for Afrin nasal spray. I don't like the way that oral decongestants make me feel, and Afrin helps without those side effects


• that it is now time to start planning what vegetables and herbs I will plant this year in my garden


• for Sarah and her handsome son, Evan


• that Ashley's old wheelchair, which I took to Goodwill, will be able to help another young child


• for turkey burgers, loaded with lettuce, tomato and cucumbers, then slathered with herb mayonnaise

Grande Fiesta

"El niño debe saber que él es un milagro, eso puesto que no ha sido el principio del mundo allí, y hasta el extremo del mundo no habrá, otro niño como él." (see translation below)
Pablo Casals (Spanish Cellist and Conductor, known for his virtuosic technique, skilled interpretation and consummate musicianship. 1876-1973

I watched a miracle happen this weekend with Ashley – she ate several cheese quesadillas and 2 enchiladas. I know that doesn’t sound like much of a miracle, but believe me, it is.

When I first brought Ashley home, she was two years old but was the size of a 9 month old. The only nourishment that went into her body was milk from a baby bottle. It wasn’t long after that homecoming that she was scheduled for G-tube surgery. The G-tube, once I overcame my initial and overwhelming fear of it, has proved to be a lifesaver for Ashley. She finally started to gain weight and grow once I was able to feed her through the tube. But, my dream for her was that she would be able to eat by mouth one day, and so, right after the tube was surgically inserted, Ashley entered the feeding program at our local children’s hospital.

At this particular hospital, the feeding program involved me dropping Ashley off early in the morning on my way to work, and then she would spend the day with various therapists working on getting her to eat by mouth. At the end of my work day, I would pick her up from the hospital. For 5 days a week for 6 weeks, that was our routine. By the end of the six weeks, Ashley had stopped fighting the therapists and would sometimes agree to take a few bites of yogurt or pudding. We were still a long way from the dream of eating by mouth.

At the end of the 6 week program, Ashley then transitioned to outpatient feeding therapy at a hospital location a little closer to home. We would go three evenings a week for the therapist to work very hard at getting a bite of a nutrigrain bar into Ash’s stomach. I was starting to get very discouraged and resigned to the fact that the G-tube might be the best solution for Ashley. It was at just that low point that a new therapist starting working with Ashley, and things changed for the better.

The therapists at the hospital and for the first year at outpatient therapy used a behavioral approach to get children to eat. Ashley’s reluctance did not seem behavioral in nature. When the new therapist suggested that we use a sensory-based approach, I agreed, and from that point forward, Ashley has done very well.

Over the years, she’s made her way through soft foods like yogurt and potatoes, then onto blenderized food – things like beans and ham spread mixed together – and finally to food with some texture to it. She is now eating a variety of different foods including some meat. She could probably use a few more vegetables and fruit, but I keep reminding myself that she still is a kid first and foremost. So, when my oldest son suggested going to lunch yesterday at a Mexican restaurant and taking Ashley, I had my doubts.

I packed up her backpack with her favorite Campbell’s Soup At Hand, mac and cheese, and lots of crackers and cheese, convinced that eating Mexican food was not in Ashley’s plan for lunch. But much to my surprise, she not only ate it, she ate a lot of it – quesadillas, enchiladas, nacho chips, and very spicy cheese dip. We even had to ask the waiter for extra food because she was making her way through the initial order so quickly.

Do you see now why it is a miracle? This child of mine who didn’t eat anything for the first several years of her life – this child who has spent years of her life in feeding therapy – this child who is deafblind and hates new textures – willingly and with gusto enjoyed a cultural lunch yesterday!

My son was so excited that he even paid for everyone’s lunch!!

“The child must know that he is a miracle, that since the beginning of the world there hasn't been, and until the end of the world there will not be, another child like him.”

Apple Season

The start of school reminds me that Fall is just around the corner. Even though the temperatures here in Virginia are still sitting around 90 degrees, school busses, new lunchboxes, cool weather clothes in the stores, and the first falling leaves get me in the mood for sweaters and crock pot cooking. One of my favorite things about Fall is that with it comes apple picking time.

Just 70 miles from us is a wonderful apple orchard named Carter Mountain Orchard. After a steep, winding ride up a mountain, we are greeted with acres and acres of apple trees, a barn store, and many activities for children. Everything other than the actual apple orchards is handicapped accessible, which garners them many kudos from me. When we drive into the parking area, the aroma of baking apples and spices fills the air. And, they have absolutely the most wonderful apple donuts in the world!

The kids and I take a picnic lunch, spread a blanket on the hillside, and enjoy the country atmosphere. We don’t actually pick apples (that accessibility thing), but we do buy some that have already been picked, along with apple cider and extras of the apple donuts. Since pumpkins are also available at the same time, we pick out our Halloween pumpkins along with the apples, and have the same discussion we do every Fall about whether the pumpkins will have scary faces or happy faces. After a few hours, we pack everything into the van and head back down the mountain – tired, more than a little dirty, but happy and looking forward to more apple dishes.

Many years ago, my apple pie recipe won a blue ribbon at the state fair. I can’t share that recipe with you because it has a secret ingredient, and if I shared it, well, then it wouldn’t be secret anymore, now would it? But, here is another of my family’s favorites:

Apple Cobbler

Ingredients:

1/2 c. sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt
4 c. thinly-sliced pared apples
1 well beaten egg
1/2 c. evaporated milk
1 c. sifted all-purpose flour
1/3 c. melted butter

Preparation:

Place apples in bottom of a greased 8 1/4" x 1 3/4" inch round baking dish. Sprinkle with a mixture of the sugar and cinnamon. Mix dry ingredients together. Combine egg, milk and butter. Add dry ingredients all at once, and mix until smooth. Pour over apples. Bake at 325 degrees for about 1 hour, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Serve warm. Makes 8 servings. The addition of a handful of black walnuts to the apples makes for mighty good eating!

Who Is This Person?

I am more amazed each day at how Ashley has blossomed this summer. I know I have written about it before, but she just keeps shocking me more and more. We decided to take a day trip to the beach yesterday. We packed the van with enough stuff to last a week (the moms that read this will understand that comment) and headed east. We had not gotten very far when we crossed a river – not the beach, mind you – just a river. Ashley started to sign “swim please”. There’s the first shock. This child is totally blind in her left eye and has a acuity of 20/2000 (yes, two thousand) in her right eye. She can only focus at about one inch from that eye, yet she recognized water somehow and knew we were going to the beach to swim.

On the way there, we decided to stop at an historic family diner for lunch. The place was PACKED – not just crowded – PACKED. In the past, we would have avoided a crowd like that at all costs. It would have been way too much stimulation for my deafblind child, and after a few minutes, she would have had a meltdown of volcanic proportions. Yet today was different. We dodged the crowd, fought to get her wheelchair into the diner (not the most accessible of places), waiting about 10 minutes, and then had to weave through the entire place and dozens of people to get to our table.

In the past, waiting was not an option. If we could not immediately walk to our table and have food waiting, a meal out was just not going to happen. Several years ago, the folks at Shoney’s Restaurant figured this out, and when they saw my van pull into the handicapped parking space, would call back to the kitchen to get a grilled cheese sandwich started. By the time we were shown to our table, Ashley’s food was ready. But today was different.

We waited, we strolled to our table, and then Ashley began looking at the menu. She had to hold it one inch from her only good eye to see, but see she did. We all ordered at the same time – also an unusual occurrence, and then we waited patiently about 20 minutes for our food. We ate, we had desert, and still Ashley was happy and relaxed. She did insist on eating about half a bottle of ketchup, but hey, one success at a time!

Somedays I look at this young woman and feel like I don’t know her at all. But then, when she refuses to be wheeled out of the restaurant without holding my hand the whole time, my little girl is back and she needs her mommy. I am so very proud of the woman my little girl is becoming.

Yes, Chef

Gordon Ramsay is hot. I would sell two of my children for a chance to be on Hell’s Kitchen. OK, maybe just rent my children, but I can’t think of much I would rather do than learn to cook under his tutelage. Even though he yells obscenities and often reduces his students to quivering, crying masses, those students that survive really know how to cook at the end of his lessons.

Cooking and baking are two of my favorite things to do. Were I rich and a lady of leisure, I would have a gourmet meal prepared for my family every day of the week. I really like experimenting with flavors and unique combinations of food but I like perfecting the classics equally as much. Being realistic though, as a single working mother, I can’t always spend the time I would like on preparing meals for my family. So I improvise.

I search for recipes I think my family will enjoy, and then I try to adapt them to be easier to prepare. My frittatas are one example of that. A frittata is an open-faced omelet with other ingredients, such as cheese or vegetables, mixed into the eggs rather than used as a filling. I can get very creative with the fillings, using things I know my kids will eat and throwing a few new things that standing alone they probably would not choose to eat. While making a frittata is pretty easy, I have made it even easier by applying my improvising techniques to it. So, here is my plan for a very easy and healthy middle-of-the-week meal that looks like it took a lot of effort but really didn’t.

Menu:
Tomato Bacon Frittata
Lettuce salad with fresh veggies
Cinnamon muffins

The first easy modification is to use the cinnamon muffins that I made for breakfast yesterday. They will be just as tasty once they spend a few minutes in the microwave.

The salad is very simple to assemble from torn green leaf lettuce leaves, cucumber slices from the fresh cucumbers in my garden, and a sprinkling of one of the salad crispy mixes you can find in the grocery store such as one with dried cranberries and spiced walnuts.

The frittata I usually make involves eggs, potatoes, some kind of breakfast meat, vegetables, cheese and fresh herbs from my garden. To make it even easier, I often use cut-up leftover potatoes (like the huge portion of fries I got with a lunch the day before). I will also use the pre-cooked bacon that you can buy in the store and cheese that has already been shredded. Here’s how to assemble it:

• Preheat your oven to broil. This will be needed for the final step in cooking the frittata


• Pour a little olive oil into an oven-proof skillet – I like cast iron.


• Dump in the cut up potatoes and bacon and warm them through.


• While the potatoes and bacon are warming, crack and mix together about 8-10 eggs, depending on how big your skillet is. Season the eggs with salt and pepper.


• Pour the eggs into the skillet on top of the potatoes and bacon BUT DO NOT STIR. The frittata must cook like an omelet, not like scrambled eggs.


• Sprinkle whatever fresh or dried herbs you prefer on top of the eggs. Parsley and chives are two of my favorites.


• Just let the egg cook – again, DO NOT STIR. The eggs will start to cook from the bottom up. As they get firmer, lay sliced Hanover tomatoes on top of the frittata.


• After just a couple of minutes, when the frittata is almost done, remove it from the stove, sprinkle with the cheese of your choice, and then place the whole thing into the oven under the broiler.


• In less than a minute, the cheese will melt and your frittata will be done. Slide it out of the skillet onto a large plate, and serve sliced like pie slices.

I think even Gordon Ramsay would be impressed and would declare me his top chef of the day, take me on an incredible date in his stretch limo, and then ask me to join him in one of his 5-star kitchens.

A girl can dream, can’t she?